J'Espere

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving. I’m going to give you the same spill I give my students during this time of the year. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Inevitably everyone wants to know why Christmas isn’t. It’s the gift thing. I love presents (if you are married to me and reading this I LOVE presents) but I really do love a holiday dedicated to the showing of gratitude, coming together of family, and dinner around a softly lit table with everyone sharing their thanks. That’s my fantasy world. In reality, it’s a very different thing. Reality was waking up Thanksgiving morning and realizing there was no way in hell we were getting anywhere close to my parents before noon. First feeding went well, but instead of organizing and packing the night before, I’m not sure what Matt and I did, but it probably involved watching Netflix way too late followed by me having to get up with sweet SL, followed by me begging Matt to hang out with her for just an extra 20 minutes while I show...

Really there are several things that I abso-lute-ly love in NC. One is the Duke- Carolina game, be it basketball, football, or even soccer. The second is the NC State Fair. Held every year in Raleigh NC, the State Fair is a cumulation of everything that is good about the South- giant vegetables, rides that might fall apart at any moment, and deep-fried anything (even pickles or Twinkies. really.) I've been going nearly every year since I was too small to remember. My favorite memories are from when I was in elementary school and my parents would actually let me skip a half-day to head over to the fair with them. I loved being pulled out of school for any reason, but that was an especially good one. I loved eating junk food, picking up cheap prizes at the grab-a-bag, and petting the goats and seeing the bunnies. I could go on and on. So I talk about the fair a lot this time of year. It's nothing against anyone else's state fair, it's just that this one is the best. when ...